GOVT: ‘Look Over There!’ *Cripples Democracy*

HENRY BROADBENT (HE/HIM)

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It’s the final Salient! Summer approaches! The thing is, while we’re developing weird tan lines and a taste for hazy IPAs, the government will be working as hard as ever to fuck over vulnerable New Zealanders. Here’s what to keep an eye out for. 

The next two years—to certain people—represent a massive opportunity for increased privatisation, deregulation, resource extraction and a transfer of wealth to corporate and property-owning interests. The playbook for achieving this is almost banal in its familiarity.

Take Nicola Willis’s back to the office edict, last week. If cutting thousands of jobs in the public service then blaming public servants for the economic woes in the city sounds deranged, that’s because it is. It also got all of us talking. A rolling debate about the price of flat whites and working from home? That’s like crack to the boys over at Stuff. 

The thing is, while we’re all eagerly discussing the supposed decline of Welly and the ethics of doing a load of laundry while on a Zoom call, Parliament is racing along under urgency.

In the final week of September, legislation accorded urgency (ie: rapid progression, limited-to-zero public input) included bills: impeding iwi demonstration of customary marine title, lifting the ban on petroleum exploration in Taranaki, and removing Te Tiriti obligations from our countries prisons, allowing body imaging of prisoners, allowing hearings to proceed without prisoners present, and allowing the Corrections Minister to sign-off on the use of physical violence against prisoners. It’s ‘woke food’ all over again.

This is not to say that the government blaming workers for the consequences of government actions is not worthy of note, and more than a little news copy. It is, however, a fact that we have limited resources for journalism in Aotearoa, and a habit of hyperfocusing on single issues in our body politic.

We cannot afford to do this.

Scrutiny is essential.

So, next time a coalition minister starts generating headlines, take a look at Parliament. I promise you won’t like what you find.